After being lost for 1,600 years, the Biblical blue dye is returning in force. With over 270,000 sets of fringes being made to date, the factory that produces the pigment from the murex snail is gearing up to triple its production. But they know that the redemption is near and the Third Temple will need even more of the precious dye to start operations. TECHELET The dye can be collected by crushing the snails, or by laboriously milking the snails and collecting the excretion. 12,000 snails might yield 1.4 grams of dye, which is only enough to color the trim of a single garment.
Ptil Tekhelet, a non-profit based in Kfar Adumim, produces the special Biblically mandated indigo dye made from the murex snail used in the mitzvah of tztitzit (fringes) that every Jewish man is commanded to wear on a four-cornered garment. Techelet is a blue dye highly prized by ancient Mediterranean civilizations and mentioned 49 times in the Hebrew Bible. It was used in the clothing of the High Priest, the tapestries in the Tabernacle, and in tzitzit (ritual fringes worn by Jewish men).
